


The Star’s Child

by Lunarium



Category: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Spiritual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-11
Updated: 2016-02-11
Packaged: 2018-05-19 16:55:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5974735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Chenelo attempts to teach Maia how to pray.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Star’s Child

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Chocolatepot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chocolatepot/gifts).



> For Chocolatepot who asked for Chenelo teaching Maia.

Whenever she felt the panic begin to rise, Chenelo pulled out the prayer beads from her pocket and began to count. The pearlescent beads wrapped around her dark hand like stars shimmering in the night, ninety-nine beads in all to invoke the memory of the first ninety-nine stars spoken into existence by the dreaming Lady of the Stars. One by one they disappeared behind her hand as her thumb pushed one up and over the curl of her fingers, uttering another prayer with reach bead drop. 

_Cstheio Caireizhasan, hear me._

Click. 

_Cstheio Caireizhasan, see me._

Click.

 _Cstheio Caireizhasan, know me._

She never met the person had had sent her the prayer beads. It was shortly after her wedding and in learning that she was with child that she had received a small package from a votary of the Urvekh’. There was no personal letter but a very touching prayer for her child written in a careful and steady hand. The prayer beads were wrapped in the soft dark velvet cloth in the same color worn by the Convent of the Lighthouse Keepers, indicating that the prayer beads had been blessed by the votaries before being shipped off to her. From the shine, Chenelo had guessed they were newly made from the pearls found on the coast of Barizhan, each carefully selected for the right size, shape, and color to match her sister pearls. 

_May this find you well._

Were all the words that came on a small white thick card. Underneath was the name _Holitho_ signed, though Chenelo had never known anyone by that name. 

The beads had brought her tranquility whenever she had feared panic and despair would claim her, as the moment of her labour drew closer, as the painful seconds ticked before the midwife had appeared, as she held her healthy baby son and strained to her husband’s plans of what to do with the hobgoblin and her ugly offspring once she was fit enough to travel again. 

“What’s that, Mama?” 

Chenelo turned her attention away from the beads and smiled at her tiny boy. It had been about five years since she had received her gift, and each day she had given it a kiss in gratitude that the gods had blessed her with Maia, that even life in Isvaroë, far from being doomed into a life of squalor she had feared, had its moments of great joy. 

Chenelo ushered for Maia to sit beside her and scooted an inch to allow her small son enough room to settled next to her on the sofa chair. 

“These are my prayer beads,” Chenelo explained. “I say a prayer with each pearl whenever I am scared or sad. See, they look like stars when they are placed against my hand!” 

Holding on to one pearl so she wouldn’t lose her place, she shifted the beads so that they rested against her bare arms, twinkling beautifully against her dark skin. Maia’s eyes widened in awe, and chuckling, she brought the beads closer to him. 

“I’m among stars!” Maia said when he beheld the beads up close. 

“Hast thou been learning the mantra I taught thee, my child?” 

Maia nodded animatedly, and Chenelo laughed. 

She showed Maia her steps, watching his delighted face melt into tranquil slumber at her prayer. Than he attempted the mantra, _attempt_ being the keyword, for his words came out faster and faster until Chenelo could not stop laughter and Maia dissolved into laughter along with her. 

“Silly boy!” she chuckled. 

Maia’s hair was thick and wildly curly, spinning in many directions that it fell over his ears, weighing on his ears that he occasional twitched an ear to displace an troublesome strand of curl. She kissed the top of his head, smoothing out one small side of Maia’s hair. 

“Thou must _be_ in it,” she said, but she was uncertain how much else she could explain it to her son. He blinked, face full of mixed confusion and determination in wanting to know, wanting to making her proud. 

“Followest each star,” Chenelo said, then began her mantra again, loud enough for Maia to hear, who instantly fell into the same peaceful reverie that always overcame her when she prayed. Her heart warm and glad, her free hand reaching up to play with a stray curl, watching as her son dreamt himself among the stars.


End file.
